It happens.

Not very often, but it happens.

Sometimes it’s because the person drank too much. Beware of Open Bar combined with a too-late live auction. It’s an urban myth that you should get your guests drunk so they “bid more.” Drunk is NOT the goal, should never be the goal. The guideline fundraising professionals use is “Two drinks good, 3 drinks bad.” Get your fundraising FINISHED before your guests have finished a third drink. People who’ve had too much to drink (more than 2-3) tend to be louder, talkative, self-absorbed, unable to focus on the larger agenda of the whole room, and -in extreme cases -not thinking clearly. Oh they might bid, but they’re the first ones to cry “buyer’s remorse” and refuse to pay, leaving you with a multi-thousand dollar auction item and no crowd left (on Monday after the event) to sell it to.

There are other reasons people refuse to honor their auction bid, and there are a few ways you can minimize your risk, so start building these safeguards into your next event:

1. Videotape your live auction and paddle raise appeal. If you’ve got them on video raising their Bid Number, it will be harder to claim it was a mistake.
2. Get an instant confirmation after each item is sold. We often create a separate invoice for each live auction item and a runner gets an immediate “Print, Phone, Signature” – printed name, phone and confirming signature acknowledging the item and the purchase price. If using mobile bidding, one of the reps can go to each winner and immediate confirm acceptance by asking for his/her phone number to tie that item to an account on file.
3. Make sure your clerks are writing down the back-up bidders, too, in case you need to reach out to them after the event. (Side note: remember that ALL bidders during your live auction – everyone who raises a bid number – was trying to give you money that night, and only a few were the final winning bidders. It’s a GREAT idea to follow up with all bidders after the event and thank them, see if you can interest them in supporting in another way, invite them to join the committee for next year’s auction, etc.)

Despite all of your efforts, someone calls on Monday and backs out/won’t honor their bid. Now what?

Check out Part Two…